Page 7 of The Heart of Winter

As I buried my face in my teacup, Father gave me a look. It didn't say much, but it was in the air—something was coming.

Our longtime butler, Avi, served our food while my father exchanged a few words with him. Avi had been with us for years, and Father respected him a lot. He valued hard work, any kind of work. He treated all his employees with reverence, without even a trace of the superiority complex that some rich people had. As long as someone worked to the best of their ability, Fa approved.

What he couldn’t stand were slackers. That meant me, in his opinion.

As soon as Avi left, Fa turned his gaze to me. What was it this time? The same old lecture? Either scolding or pressure to ‘finally do something’ with my life. I heard it from every direction: loser, failure, lazy!

"How’s Blue?"

No, no, no. I wasn’t falling for it. I knew damn well this was just a setup for the real deal.

"The FBI finally raided Anzo Ferro. They got him. Maybe Blue will have some peace for a while," I muttered.

Fa sighed. "He really shouldn’t be messing with those people. They’re dangerous."

Against my better judgment, I felt the need to defend my uncle.

"He’s not ‘messing’ with anyone. The government asked him to cooperate. Why would he refuse, as a businessman? It made him millions." I found myself surprised by my own argument.

Normally, I’d have said exactly what Fa was saying. But today, I automatically took the opposite stance, already bracing for where this conversation was heading.

Fa looked at me over his glasses and said in a firm tone, "If you start talking about social issues, expect backlash. Everyone has their ownopinion." He really emphasized that last word.

"Blue loves what he does—"

"It’s better to stay out of dangerous business! Blue has no family, so he does whatever he wants, but we’ll see how long that lasts." Fa shrugged.

I slumped a bit lower in my seat. Fa usually respected Blue, his youngest brother, but they had completely different outlooks on life.

"I heard some of his bodyguards died in the last attack. Soon, no security company is gonna want to work with him, he’s just too high-risk," my brother said unexpectedly, casually picking up a piece of seaweed salad with his fork.

Vren never liked Blue, constantly calling him a midget or a monk behind his back, and he never missed a chance to take a jab at him.

Then my brother added with an unsettling smirk. "On the bright side, if he dies, his fortune gets split among his brothers, so we’ll get a cut too."

He said it with a greedy gleam in his eye. He’d definitely inherited that hunger for money from my dad’s side of the family.

"Seriously, asshole? That was low," I hissed.

"Enough, you two!" Dad said in a tired voice, looking like he really didn’t want to interfere but felt he had to.

He hated when we argued, always said it gave him a headache. He had some neurotic traits that made him prone to stress. He held a very demanding position at his father’s bank, and the job drained every ounce of his energy.

"Blue is not what I wanted to talk about," Fa said, his brows furrowed.

And I didn’t even flinch. Obviously, that was just the warm-up, the little prelude. Now came the real thing.

"I think your vacation has lasted long enough. It’s September now. Everyone else is getting jobs. It’s time for you to do the same. DevApp is hiring. Graphic designers are needed."

There it was. But I was kinda ready. I put on the most hostile, defiant look I could muster.

"Then give me Werner’s job."

Oh, I knew how outrageous that was. And yet, I couldn't help but say it, hoping it would convince him I was a lost cause.

Fa let out a sharp, angry scoff. "Stop trolling, Sariel. I’m not about to put you in charge of something that determines the success of our entire company."

Unbothered, I went on with a sly smirk on my lips. "But it's you who always complains about how smug and patronizing he is!"

---